1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clamp, and more particularly, it relates to a clamp for use in a sewing machine wherein the clamp is provided with a source for holding a workpiece in association with a surface of the clamp.
2. Description of Related Art
In the sewing industry, a common repetitive function is to sew collar stays, comprised of elongated planar members formed of a stiff material such as plastic, onto a sewable article, such as a shirt collar. A clamp was typically used to hold a collar stay in association with a shirt collar during a sewing operation in a sewing machine and the clamp included an opening corresponding to the shape of the collar stay. The collar stay would be fed by a feed mechanism from a stack of collar stays, and an operator would take each stay from the feed mechanism and place it within the opening in the clamp whereby the opening defined a template for holding the collar stay in place. Subsequently a collar was placed in association with the collar stay and the sewing machine then moved the collar and stay under an oscillating needle in order to sew the stay onto the collar.
Accordingly, it is apparent that the prior method of aligning collar stays within a sewing machine was relatively labor intensive in that an operator was required to transfer the collar stays from the feed mechanism to the opening in the clamp. Further, the speed at which the overall operation of attaching collar stays could be performed has been partly dependent on the dexterity of the operator in transferring the stays to the clamp.